Who Is Playing The Fiddle While North Carolina Burns?

That would be North Carolina’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC). Why do we care about the EMC right now? This 15-member commission is responsible for approving state-level PFAS surface water and groundwater quality standards. Having health-protective standards ensures the lakes, rivers, and groundwater we use for fishing, farming, and drinking water are protected from dangerous levels of PFAS contamination. It would rightfully place the burden on polluters who profit from PFAS to control their toxic releases–instead of forcing communities to unfairly pay the clean-up costs.

Members of the EMC are appointed by the Governor, the Senate Pro Tempore, the Speaker of the House, and the Commissioner of Agriculture. Historically, the Governor controlled the majority of appointments to the EMC because the state constitution requires the executive branch to oversee implementing laws passed by the legislature. However, last year the Republican-controlled state legislature stripped two appointments from Gov. Cooper (D) and gave this authority to the Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler (R). 

Gov. Cooper has been fighting this power grab within the courts since last year. While this plays out through the legal system, Troxler’s new appointments immediately sided with the state legislature appointments, shifting the power of the EMC away from Gov. Cooper. 

All of this is important because this past April the U.S. EPA issued first-ever federal PFAS drinking water standards for 6 PFAS–including GenX. Because of your voices and your fight, Clean Cape Fear was invited to help organize this historic announcement, and co-founder, Emily Donovan, had the honor of introducing U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan during the press conference. 

These new federal PFAS drinking water standards require communities across the nation to begin testing and removing dangerous levels of PFAS from public tap water. This is a huge victory for public health as heart disease and cancer remain the two leading causes of death in the United States and both are associated with PFAS exposures. 

The Environmental Working Group estimates that 2.5 million North Carolinians have levels of toxic PFAS currently in their tap water exceeding the EPA’s new federal standards. Communities must begin treating their public tap water to remove these forever chemicals. Water utilities have five years to install proper treatments to ensure public tap water does not contain dangerous levels of these 6 PFAS–PFOA, PFOS, GenX, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFBS.

Per EWG’s analysis, of North Carolina’s largest water systems, five currently do not comply with the EPA’s new standards.

Source: EWG, June 5, 2024: “State ‘forever chemicals’ spotlight: North Carolina’s drinking water contamination”

We know it’s costly to clean PFAS from tap water. Wilmington residents have endured water rate increases three times since 2021. These increases were needed in order to remove PFAS from the region’s primary drinking water supply–the Cape Fear River– which is severely contaminated with PFAS from companies like Chemours, as well as, multiple industries upstream. Brunswick County residents are paying for a $100 million upgrade to clean PFAS from its water supply. 

Here’s the thing, these treatment upgrades would be much cheaper and more affordable for communities if the handful of PFAS polluters causing all the problems were required to control their PFAS releases at source of the pollution. That’s why establishing state-level surface water and groundwater standards for PFAS is so critical. 

North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) knows this and has been working since late last year to establish rulemaking and get state-level PFAS water quality standards approved to control PFAS pollution at the source. Unfortunately, the EMC is refusing to allow this process to move forward and we now know the NC Chamber of Commerce is behind these delays. This is why DEQ Secretary, Elizabeth Biser, issued a rare public statement in May calling out the EMC for allowing the NC Chamber of Commerce to overly influence its decision-making process. 

Earlier this week, Clean Cape Fear’s co-founder, Emily Donovan, and leadership team member, Steve Schnitzler, participated in a press conference hosted by our friends at the NRDC. Steve is the CEO of Port City Java–a popular coffee shop franchise in the region, and a member of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. 

Steve publicly called out the NC Chamber for unfairly protecting the business interests of a select few PFAS polluters at the expense of small business owners like himself. Port City Java locations in New Hanover County have seen their water rates increase by 57% since 2021 while upstream polluters continue to profit off unregulated and uncontrolled PFAS releases. 

Emily Donovan reminded the EMC the United Nations is still actively investigating business-related human rights abuses in North Carolina related to decades of PFAS exposures from DuPont and Chemours. Donovan encouraged both the EMC and DEQ to swiftly address PFAS pollution at the source in an effort to remedy these human rights abuses.

It’s important to note, that we believe DEQ already has the legal authority under the Clean Water Act to require PFAS polluters to control their releases through the NPDES permit process. This action would immediately protect surface waters from toxic PFAS pollution. We encourage DEQ to use its full authority to stop all PFAS releases at the source. However, this will not address historic releases of PFAS. That is why it is important for the EMC to swiftly establish groundwater quality standards for PFAS to jump-start the clean-up process. Additionally, to further protect groundwater from future PFAS contamination the EMC should also create companion surface water quality standards because we all know how groundwater gets contaminated–from above. 

STAY ENGAGED & JOIN THE FIGHT

Elections matter. If you are tired of being a PFAS sacrifice zone then vote like you mean it. We recommend following, liking, and supporting the following candidates:

COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE

Sarah Taber (D) is running for Commissioner of Agriculture. She lives in Fayetteville and is a highly qualified farmer. Her opponent, Steve Troxler, has served as Commissioner of Agriculture for 12 years and his recent two appointments to the EMC prove he cares more about protecting PFAS polluters than protecting public health and our food supply from PFAS contamination.

GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA

Josh Stein (D) is running for Governor. As NC’s Attorney General he sued DuPont and Chemours for natural resources damages. He’s consistently proven he cares about protecting public health from PFAS pollution.